Top Five New Employee Onboarding Best Practices

Top 5 New Employee Onboarding Best Practices

After going through an extensive recruiting, screening, and interview process, you’ve selected a candidate with the skills and experience you need. Your new hire is ready to hit the ground running. Are you? Do you have an onboarding plan in place?

An onboarding plan is a formal process of welcoming new employees and offers a number of benefits:

Increases profitability by creating a strong start

Ensures initial experiences are similar regardless of position

Improves retention by lowering the risk of an unsuccessful transition

Engages the new employee by setting expectations early and often

Follow these employee onboarding best practices to ensure that new employees have everything they need to be successful:

1. Prepare for the first day

Make a great first impression by showing that you’re prepared. Before new employees start, call or email to confirm parking, expected arrival time, dress code, and who to ask for upon arrival. In addition, take time to:

Set up workstations, including computers and office supplies

Have training materials and new employee paperwork ready

Assign someone to greet new hires upon arrival

2. Acclimate new employees to the team

Introduce new hires to the team and their mentors during the first week. Mentors make onboarding more efficient. They’re there to answer questions and help new employees get to know their co-workers.

3. Define expectations

Make sure that new hires have a clear understanding of their job duties and expectations. Explain the roles of key team members, how the team works together, and the company’s processes and procedures. Begin assigning tasks early to boost productivity and help new employees quickly make a contribution.

4. Map out a training plan and schedule

Create personalized training schedules that outline tasks to learn and who will teach them. Make sure that your trainers block their schedules so that they can give their undivided attention – no phone, email, etc. Share the schedules and learning materials with the new hires so that they can prepare for each day of training.

5. Schedule regular check-ins

Your daily interactions and conversations with new employees are the single most important factor to a successful onboarding experience. As a rule of thumb, check in with new hires every day for the first week and then weekly for the first 90 days to establish open dialogue from the very start.

These employee onboarding best practices will guide new hires toward productivity and peak performance, while providing all of the resources they need to be successful.

If you find your salary structure isn’t in line with industry standards, or if you’ve skipped pay increases for the past few years, how exactly do you make your wages fair and equitable? And how do you ensure this situation doesn’t happen again? Find out!

It isn’t always easy to determine when to hire. Hire too soon, and there may not be enough work to go around. Drag your feet, and your staff will struggle. Luckily, there are signs that can point to the need for additional staff.